Encouraging architectural quality and good urban design are among key objectives being considered in the NSW Planning System Review.

The NSW Government is re-writing the State's main planning law, known as the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

The NSW Planning System Review has held over 90 open community forums and over 60 key stakeholder meetings throughout NSW during the last two months.

The Issues Paper of the NSW Planning System Review, entitled, The way ahead for planning in NSW?, was released for public comment on 6 December 2011.

And a specific assessment system has now been created in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act to consider projects classed as State significant development (SSD).

Project will be considered to be SSD if they are over a certain size or located in a sensitive environmental area.

Architectural review and design panels

During the course of the stakeholder group discussion with the Institute of Architects, it was pointed out that a number of councils have appointed architectural review and design panels. It was suggested that there should be some basis in new planning legislation for the establishment of such panels.

These panels could operate in a similar way to Independent Hearing and Assessment Panels. They could provide advice to the council on the architectural and design merits of proposals, and recommend modifications to rectify design defects.

It was not suggested that such panels would have any decision-making powers.

Design excellence

Some local planning controls include provisions such as a requirement for consistency with an existing streetscape or development pattern in a neighbourhood. During the consultation process, concern was expressed that such requirements could have the unexpected and/or undesirable consequence of excluding contemporary design. This may be of a high standard and/or may incorporate ecologically sustainable design elements such as passive thermal efficiency.

You can read all the submissions received during the NSW Planning System Review here.